Know more: A day in the life of a resident student

7:15 a.m. Alarm rings. Turn over and fall asleep -it takes only 10 minutes to get from my room to the Memorial Classroom Building, if I walk fast.

7:40 a.m. Reluctantly roll out of bed, brush teeth, throw on a pair of jeans and grab my backpack. Out the door and in the elevator by 7:47 a.m. Get to philosophy and try to pay attention to what’s going on without falling asleep.

9:00 a.m. Breakfast at the dining hall. Get my usual bagel with cream cheese and-yes!-they have pineapple today. I don’t have class till 12. Be productive and get some work done, or take a nap?

11:15 a.m. I choose the nap. Shower, wear something more presentable and head out to class.

1:00 p.m. Lunchtime. Walk through the UC Breezeway and fend off the surveys and credit card offers. Sign up to volunteer this Saturday at a nursing home. Buy something at the food court. Notice that I’m running low on Dining Dollars-gotta be careful for the rest of the semester. Maybe I should start using more of those 14 meals a week I have at the dining hall. Find some friends sitting on the Rock and join them for a nice, leisurely lunch.

2:00 p.m. One more class. Should I go? I should go.

3:00 p.m. Realize that I have some errands to run, professors to visit before office hours are over.

5:00 p.m. Finally, getting back to my room! See that they have a Hecht program tonight about Stress Relief. Hmm…relieve stress by finishing all the work I have to do or relieve stress by listening to someone tell me how to relieve stress? Decide to go to the program after dinner at the dining hall.

9:00 p.m. Where did the day go? Write myself a reminder to show up dance practice tomorrow for the cultural show I’m performing in. All right, I need to buckle down and get enough work done so that I’ll survive classes tomorrow. Oh yeah, I haven’t called home in a while…

Megha Garg can be contacted at

m.garg2@umiami.edu.